Ingeborg entrop continues to dig for sounds and songs

August 10, 2016

A Dutch artist Ingeborg Entrop is going to stay at Mardu once again to continue her collection of sounds and pursue her quest for Estonian runo-song (in Estonian: regilaul). See also what she wrote about her background and project before her previous visit and read a kind of a follow-up post here:

The raised bogs that once covered the northern parts of the Netherlands are gone. And so are the sounds of that landscape. What could those sounds have been? I cannot travel in time, so in order to hear the sounds of the past, I have to travel in space, to the land of bogs…

Last winter I stayed in Soomaa for the first time. Wind, rain and snow murmured their freezing tunes on the bogs and through the forests. Only the raven occasionally added a few notes to their polyphony. In spring I visited Soomaa again. Forests were now drenched by buzzing and whistling, rustling and swishing, and bogs were swamped with fluttering and warbling, with the cuckoo never far away, providing a perfect basso continuo. This summer I will stay at Mardu farm once again to continue this collection of sounds from a present past.

With the first people to set foot on a bog, the first sounds of human origin came along as well. I imagine an endless loop of gloomy sounds, of splashing, digging, chopping and cutting, occasionally muted by uplifting songs. What could those songs have been? Again, I cannot travel in time, so in order to hear the melodies of the past, I have to travel to the land of songs…

Since my first visit to Estonia, I am gathering information on Estonian music and song. Currently I am intrigued by the regilaul. These songs were sung at times when cultivation of the bogs in the northern parts of the Netherlands started. Could the present remains of the regilaul disclose a glimpse of those times? During my summer visit, I also wish to pursue this part of my quest.